diversity

Louisiana Tech University has agreed to use online learning materials that are accessible to the blind, under an agreement to resolve complaints of discrimination investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The department found that the university had been using materials that caused a blind student to fall behind on his schoolwork. That student will receive more than $23,000 under the settlement.

The recent firing of Beckie Francis as women's basketball coach at Oakland University (along with the subsequent resignation of her husband, the university president) has been somewhat mysterious on the campus. But The Detroit Free Pressreported on the results of interviews with former players that Francis pushed Christianity on players, told them that they needed to be virgins and was "fixated" on body issues. The players reported that photographs were taken of them in sports bras and Spandex to chart any changes in body size. Francis declined to comment for the article.

An anonymous blogger has pointed out that Boston University's student newspaper, in its crime log, has been posting headlines that mock those who have reported the crimes. For example, a listing about a domestic violence case reported by a woman against her boyfriend, who she said choked her, was labeled "Choked Up." The student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, has now apologized. A statement from its board says: "[T]he Crime Logs sections of The Daily Free Press have repeatedly published callous sub-headlines making light of serious issues and inadvertently exploiting victims of crime for humor. On behalf of the Board of Directors of The Daily Free Press, we sincerely apologize for these headlines and any other material that may have caused harm or offense."

The University of California has agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a surgeon at the medical school at the university's Los Angeles campus, the Los Angeles Times reported. Christian Head, a head and neck surgeon at UCLA, had accused the university of retaliating against him for filing complaints about discrimination through regular channels, and said that he had once been portrayed as a gorilla being sodomized in a slide show at an event for residents -- an incident for which the university apologized in the settlement.

The number of black and Latino students entering four-year colleges significantly outpaced the number of white students over the last three years, while the six-year graduation rate of the minority students edged up slowly, the Education Trust said in a new report. "Intentionally Successful," an analysis of new data from the U.S. Education Department, found that black and Hispanic enrollment at four-year colleges rose by 8.5 and 22 percent, respectively, between 2009 and 2011, compared to a 2.7 percent rise in white enrollment.

The six-year graduation rates of those groups rose by 2 percent, 4.7 percent, and 2.1 percent, respectively, between 2009 and 2011, and the graduation rate for black students in 2011 was still 2.2 percentage points lower than it was in 2006, Education Trust found.

Tom Joyner, the radio host and advocate for historically black colleges, has offered a full scholarship to the black college of her choice for Rachel Jeantel, the friend of Trayvon Martin who testified in the trial over his killing, CNN reported. Joyner made the offer after hearing Jeantel interviewed. "I will help you get tutors to get you out of high school, tutors to help you pass the SAT, and I will give you a full-ride scholarship to any HBCU you'd like," he said.